clashing

Pluralclashings

1. 1
   adjective

   Mismatched and inharmonious, so that colors, clothing, or sounds seem not to fit well together.

   Like two melodies played in different keys at the same time.

   The designer deliberately paired clashing patterns to create a chaotic look.

   A set of clashing chords opened the piece on a deliberately unsettling note.

   Similarmismatched, discordant, jarring, inharmonious

   Oppositematching, harmonious, complementary, coordinated

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of clash.

   The protesters were clashing with police outside the building.

   Their personalities kept clashing throughout the long project.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb: cymbals, quarrels, rival teams meeting, colors that refuse to match. Nearly all of these are intransitive. Things clash, often clash with something, though someone can also clash cymbals. The same spelling serves as the noun for the collision, which has a plural (clashings), and as adjectives that grade: more clashing, most clashing.

3. 3
   adjective

   Conflicting or contrary; so different that the two things cannot fit together or both hold at once.

   Like two witnesses telling completely different stories about the same event.

   The report contained clashing accounts of what happened that night.

   Two clashing theories divided the research team for years.

   Similarconflicting, contradictory, incompatible, opposing, contrary

   Oppositeconsistent, compatible, harmonious

4. 4
   adjective

   Adverse or antagonistic; standing in open opposition or disagreement with one another.

   Like rival nations sitting on opposite sides of a border dispute.

   The meeting collapsed under the weight of clashing factions.

   Their clashing ambitions turned former allies into rivals.

   Similaropposing, conflicting, antagonistic, rival, warring

   Oppositeallied, united, cooperative

5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A violent collision, or the harsh sound and action produced when two things strike together.

   Like the metallic din of a drawer of cutlery hitting the floor.

   The clashing of cymbals signaled the start of the parade.

   A great clashing rose from the battlefield as the two lines met.

   Similarclang, crash, clatter, din, collision

6. 6
   adjective

   Producing a clash or a series of clashes, as of struck metal objects.

   Like a blacksmith's hammer ringing again and again on the anvil.

   The clashing gears of the old machine filled the workshop with noise.

   Clashing bells rang out across the valley at midnight.

   Similarclattering

   Note

   Here the word is pure noise, with no hint of disagreement: the din of metal meeting metal. It sits naturally in a run of sound-words, as in H.L. Brækstad's 1886 translation of Asbjørnsen's Folk and Fairy Tales, where a mill gives out "a whizzing, whirring, and clashing sound." Keep it apart from sounds that jar together. Clashing chords are out of tune with each other, while a clashing sound is simply metallic and loud.

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